Protestors in Under Junon Demand Change Amid Rolling Blackouts by the Shinra Electric Company
Under Junon—Tensions flared today as hundreds of residents took to the streets to protest Shinra following persistent blackouts that have plagued the city for weeks. The demonstration, marked by chants of "Shinra's greed leaves us in the dark!" and "Get off our Junon!" underscored growing discontent with the megacorporation's policies amidst global discontent with the drawn-out war against Wutai.
The protests were centered around Shinra's failure to provide reliable electricity in Junon. Many residents voiced frustrations over the impact of frequent power outages on their daily lives, citing disruptions to businesses, healthcare services, and household routines. The problem is exacerbated in Under Junon, where neighborhoods get less than 12% natural sunlight a day and rely on the Junon reactor for all power generation. Here, blackouts that last as long as 60% of the day has affected almost all households.
Shinra Energy Company, a dominant force in the global energy market headquartered in Midgar, has faced mounting criticism in recent years for prioritizing profit over public welfare. In Midgar, discontent has reached a boiling point recently as Shinra's military operations abroad have become increasingly unpopular.
As protests in Junon continue to escalate, Shinra has yet to issue a public statement addressing the grievances raised by demonstrators. With tensions running high and widespread support for the protests growing, the coming days may prove decisive in determining the company's reputation in Midgar and across the globe.
"Hey, pull the article!"
"What? It's already printing-"
"Just in. We have bigger front page news."
"BREAKING NEWS: JUNON CANNON FIRED ON WUTAI"
XVIII. Devastating Rain
With each deep breath, the smoke in the air burned in his nostrils and Kunsel tried not to choke.
Kunsel was fighting in the southeast quadrant of the fort when things went to hell.
In hindsight, it was a damn miracle any part of this godsforsaken plan worked in the first place. After the initial drop into the southern part of the fortress, they met stiff resistance as Wutaian defenders poured out of every corner of the castle.
"I'll cover you!" he said, holding off advancing Wutaian reinforcements. Behind him, Seagill was pulling Loire up from the wall. Kunsel, as part of the first wave, covered for the arrival of the second wave. However, more aware of what was happening, the enemy began targeting the landing crafts, causing multiple units to bail out early. Loire was one such Soldier who leaped just a little too soon, almost missing their landing by a hair.
Kunsel blocked a swinging axe. Next to him, Zabac held off the other side.
Many others landed and rolled into the courtyard below. Thankfully, the Wutaian guards above were far too occupied by those who made it onto the ramparts to take potshots.
Kunsel blocked the incoming strike and quickly finished the attackers off when a deep horn sounded. Roars grew louder, and Kunsel ran to the edge and looked down. The wooden gate leading deeper into the keep slammed open as trained Wutaian battle beasts poured out, overwhelming the defending Soldiers.
"Thundera!" Kunsel cast. The spell burst harmlessly over thick armor and hide. The dual horn roared angrily, almost throwing off its heavily armored rider.
"Your invasion stops here, Shinra scum!" On the rampart, the Wutaian captain yelled at them, spear raised.
"I'll keep them busy," Kunsel said as Seagill finally pulled Loire back over the edge. "Find the gatehouse." Loire's boots hit the ground and both Seagill and Loire nodded before speeding away. Kunsel leaped across the ramparts, locking swords with the first Wutaian fighter. He quickly broke the man's guard and kicked him off the wall into the chaos below. Kunsel didn't watch to see where his opponent landed, sword already finding the next enemy. Pushing the second fighter, a swordsman, away, Kunsel ducked just in time to avoid a flying ninja star. The fight became two on one, and Kunsel grimaced behind his helmet.
With barely time to blink, the ninja let loose a flurry of projectiles followed by wind magic. Kunsel dodged the first but had to take the second head-on, bracing himself as the wind pulled at him. He rolled out of the way of a second attack by the swordsman, bringing him dangerously close to the edge, but a spell was already at his fingertips. Wordlessly, a blast of lightning landed, knocking the ninja off course. The man seized up as electricity ran its course, then Kunsel ran him through. The swordsman wasn't a challenge after that.
With a loud bang below, an inner gate crashed open, letting in a fresh wave of troopers. The crew got the gate open. Kunsel only huffed a sigh of relief when another wave of Wutai defenders beset him.
Less experienced than the ninja, the Wutaian troopers gave Kunsel no trouble. He was assessing the rampart, trying to figure out the best way to navigate the crumbled sections, when there was a loud shriek from above.
Kunsel looked up and groaned.
Flyers escaped the helicopters, it seems.
The garuda shrieked again and tucked its wings into a divebomb toward Kunsel's position. Kunsel rolled out of the way, then slashed at the bird, which flapped its wings and danced out of reach again. More shrieks followed, and a lone garuda became a flock as other monsters joined its attack. Kunsel raised his sword cautiously.
The next bird to attack was not as lucky as the first. The tip of Kunsel's sword clipped one wing, and it crashed hard into the ground below. Kunsel was channeling another lightning spell when the monsters became agitated. He watched in amazement as flocks overhead started flying up, illuminated by the glow of the fires below. They swarmed so thickly that they appeared like an ominous cloud.
Just as suddenly, they fled.
"What in th-"
Moments later, someone shouted, "GET DOWN!"
Kunsel crouched on pure instinct and adrenaline. Overhead, a bright beam of light flew through the air.
Someone was screaming again, but Kunsel couldn't hear it at all. Instead, a dull roaring sound ripped through the air, getting louder. It rattled Kunsel's brain in his skull. Kunsel turned on his heels to see what it was, but a blinding light flooded his vision, forcing him to close his eyes in pain.
A loud boom shook him to his bones, and then he heard nothing else. As the beam of light made contact with the side of the mountain, Kunsel was knocked flat. The walls protected him from the worst of the blast, but even then, he was tossed like a rag doll and slammed into the opposite wall. Around him, the shockwave violently tossed men, mechs, and beasts alike. As Kunsel crawled to his feet, the ground underneath shuddered.
Above them, a Gelnika was listing. In the shockwave, multiple helicopters had been blown off course, crashed, or were instantly vaporized—but not the Gelnikas. Now, Kunsel watched in horror as the aircraft began to descend at a deeper angle than it could recover from, its engines no longer firing. It disappeared behind a fortress wall, then a ball of flame erupted beyond without a sound.
Kunsel's hearing came back muffled over time as he recovered from his dizziness. Extreme vertigo plagued him as he stood and stumbled. He braced himself on what was left of a retaining wall, and he realized that he was bleeding from one ear only when wet feeling dripped down the side of his helmet into his turtleneck.
"Okay?" It was Roche, signing to Kunsel, ears also bleeding. There was a nasty gash above one eye that ran into his hairline. Whatever caused it missed blinding him by sheer dumb luck.
"Affirmative," Kunsel signed back, "Get the wounded."
His knees shook under him as he scrambled back up. His lungs burned with every step he took. His flank stung. The fabric there felt wet. But he continued forward on sheer willpower alone.
"Fuck," Essai cursed, then cursed again. "Fuck!"
Around him, men were helping each other up. They had been farther from the blast, still fighting west of the inner bailey when the impact happened. The only one still looking even remotely put together and collected with Sephiroth, but even the General looked shaken.
"Help the injured," he commanded, casting curative spells at nearby men.
Essai searched the ground until he found the broadsword he dropped. Weapon in hand, he ran further into the fortress. The blast just missed them. However, even just a glancing blow was enough to leave the back of the fortress in rubble. What Essai found was pandemonium. Flame bellowed where there used to be wooden structures all around the compound. Fighters caked in dust, sweat, and blood groaned in pain, stumbling with heavy wounds. Essai ran up to the first group of men, trying to heave a chunk of fallen wall off the ground.
"Heave on three!" he said.
The stone moved, and they lifted the slab off a man in Wutaian armor. One of the rescuers turned to Essai, and his eyes widened.
"Why are you helping us?" he asked, bewildered, but made no hostile move to retrieve his weapon. He looked as shell-shocked as Essai felt.
"Shit, man," Essai shrugged, "Things just went to hell. Does it matter?" The other man shook his head slowly. His eyes were filled with suspicion as he continued to watch Essai. Behind him, his comrades tended to the wounded warrior. Essai didn't know if he'd make it - it looked like his lower body had been crushed. Essai backed away, remembering not to turn his back. He then heard shouting and ran further in.
No one stopped him.
Rather, people were too busy to stop him. All around, the injured and wounded were carrying those more wounded out of the rubble. The further Essai went, the worse shape people were in until…well, until Essai didn't find many people who could be rescued anymore.
A shout drew Essai's attention. The familiar figure of Roche came into view, signing at him instead of speaking. There were streaks of blood coating the man's face, and he was stumbling as he approached Essai, another unconscious man slung over one shoulder.
"Wounded. That way," Roche gestured. Essai stopped to channel a cure spell. Eardrums were tricky, but the spell seemed to restore some of Roche's hearing at least.
"Where are the others?" Essai asked as he healed the Soldier Roche was carrying. The helmet was half cracked to reveal Loire's familiar face.
"We got knocked all over," Roche answered. "Kunsel and a few others are that way. We've been trying to get survivors out of the wreckage…it's a mess."
"No shit," Essai responded, "Any healing materia?" Essai cursed again when Roche shook his head, then looked pained by the movement.
"Well, you can still help carry the wounded. Get Loire out-"
A deep tremor hit them. It was the biggest quake they felt yet.
Essai looked overhead, fearing a second blast, but that didn't come. There was a loud clatter as bits of earth started to slide down from the crater's rim left behind by the explosion.
"Fuck, that can't be anything good," Essai groaned.
Sebastian freed his sword from the body of a Wutaian Foulander as another flew at him. Its open mawl was blocked just in time by Cloud's sword. Once again, the other man lost his rifle (perhaps willfully) to take up the sword. Sebastian distantly registered a dull rumble, but he didn't take his eyes of the monster in front of him.
The foulander bared its teeth as it circled. Then, it froze. Instead of making another leap at either of them, the foulander instead whined and darted past Cloud, red eyes blinded by panic.
Elsewhere, troopers and sweepers fired after retreating beasts.
Another trick?
The red gates that towered overhead were left ajar ahead of them. The twisting courtyard beyond was filled with those trampled and thrown about by the initial explosion.
Suddenly, there was a loud sound, not unlike an angry herd of cattle. Further afield, someone shouted, "Stampede!"
Sebastian gaped as the red gate burst open from the inside, letting through a stumbling herd of dual horns, most still armored and some dragging their unwilling riders behind them. Their eyes were wild and spinning. There were screams of pain as people too slow to get out of the way were trampled underneath their hooves.
The herd of retreating monsters slammed into advancing sweepers, tipping them back. When there wasn't enough room to go around, the creatures ran over them, flattening even steel.
"Fuck," Sebastian cursed. Then, when that wasn't enough, he cursed again. "Titan's balls." Cloud looked around and then cupped a hand to his mouth.
"Get everyone out of the way! Get the survivors!"
That shook the nearby combatants out of their stupor. They looked on as more monsters poured out of the compound, by land and air. It was becoming clear that it was no longer the battle either side was expecting.
As they looked on, a column of smoke rose over the tree line. It wasn't like any smoke Sebastian had ever seen. It didn't burn black like the wooden fortress roofs. It was thick and dense and blanketed the sky. Lightning cracked within the ominous column, illuminating it in malevolent blue. The ground shuddered violently.
Everyone froze at the sight as the smoke rose higher and higher, the lightning growing brighter. Cloud turned to Sebastian, face serious.
"The others need to know. Get word out."
Sebastian made a grab for Cloud, but the blond man had already darted away too quickly.
"Damn it, Strife. Wait!"
The shock of golden spikes disappeared into the fray, further into the fortress, whose front doors had been almost cleanly torn from their hinges by the force of the blast and the ensuing stampede.
Sebastian looked around desperately, then pointed at a nearby trooper.
"Jensen! Find the comms unit!"
The tremors nearly knocked Zack off his feet again after the initial blast tossed him about. Around him, the trained monsters the Wutaians garrisoned started going berserk. Those that could fly had already fled. The dual horns also stampeded about any direction they could. Zack watched in amazement as the monster he had been fighting ran, ignoring him as they blindly looked for any egress. A few dual horns who found themselves on the rampart ran so blindly that they tumbled right over the edge, dragging their screaming riders with them into a steep fall.
Zack turned to the ninja with whom he had been crossing swords. His eyes were wide with feared above his face mask.
"Hey, I don't know about you, but I don't think we should be fighting right now." The other man nodded in agreement, and without another word, they darted in opposite directions.
Zack ran further into the fortress, looking for survivors. All over were scenes of carnage. Some were clearly felled in battles, combatants of all affiliations. The blast took others and rubble took more.
Zack stopped any Soldier he could see.
"Hey, new priorities. Help the wounded."
Zack stopped several others on the way until he encountered a familiar figure lit by fire.
"Sephiroth!"
The general nodded in acknowledgment even as he slayed a struggling beast wordlessly.
"There are no more survivors here," Sephiroth said. "Sweep toward the front. Get anyone you can."
Godo regained consciousness to fires all around him. Pain shot through him.
…W-what happened?
He was garbed in full battle regalia, preparing for one last stand against the invading forces. They hadn't expected Shinra's airdrop tactic, and Godo himself had to fend off a few Soldiers who made it as far as the keep.
Picking himself up from the cold stone floor, Godo stumbled over to the platform's edge that formed the keep's foundation. The sight had him stumbling back in disbelief.
The entire northeast corner of the fort was gone. A gaping crater appeared on the side of the mountain, where there was once lush forest that weathered even the worst of Shinra's bombardment. The force of the explosion flattened trees all around in a macabre circle. Closer to the castle, the walls facing the impact were knocked inward. The entire northeast defensive tower, made of solid stone, had collapsed.
Godo's hand shook as he raised it to his mouth.
The power of a single shot. If it had hit head-on, no one would even have been aware of their own demise.
"Shinra, what have you wrought?"
"My Lord!" Godo's aide ran over. Blood was pouring down his temple, and he was favoring his right side.
"Shake. The status report?" Godo asked. How long was I out?
"Focus turned to rescue efforts," Shake said. "The animals are fleeing. Won't listen to commands. The Soldiers are not attacking anymore."
Godo turned to look at the crater again.
"The northeast corner?" he asked, dreading the answer. Shake shook his head.
"May the great lord Leviathan help them."
Godo sighed, closing his eyes in sorrow. After taking a moment to steel himself, he opened his eyes again.
"We must focus on recovery efforts as well. Leave the Soldier forces be. Shore up the keep. It's time we focused on our own -"
The quake that struck them knocked Shake off his feet. Godo reached out to steady him just in time. Tiles fell from the keep's roof anded crash loudly on the stone below. Godo watched as part of the crater side sloughed off in a small landslide.
An apparatus on a wall of the keep installed by Godo's father's father, shaped in the carving of the mighty Leviathan, dropped the brass ball it held into its mouth as the shaking stopped. The ball fell with a loud clang into the metal bowl below.
Thick smoke rose from the top of the mountain.
Godo was alive long enough to know the signs. Had seen it with his own eyes.
With urgency, he turned to Shake.
"Change of plans. Sound the horns. Find as many people as you can. We're evacuating now!"
Shake looked visibly confused. Eyes were wide with terror on his young face.
"M-my lord? But the castle-"
"No time. Work quickly, go!"
Godo spared only one thought north. He trusted Valentine to do what he asked. Yuffie must be in Wutai City by now, unhappy and rebellious but unable to step one foot out of the city.
"Stay safe, my daughter."
If I can see you one more time…
"Sir, hit confirmed," Tseng reported, "It landed within the expected error margin."
Rufus nodded in acknowledgment from where he stood, still looking out into the dark sea. The beam of light from the cannon dissipated long ago and now the only light was that of dawn. They had waited for word to travel back after. Next to Rufus, Dark Nation whined.
Tseng was tense, still reeling from the power he witnessed. In an instant, the cannon consumed more power than the amount of mako needed to light a city half of Midgar's size for a year. It could lay waste to cities without warning. Such was the power Shinra would unleash. Once Rufus found his promised land, it couldˆbe wielded without limit.
"Message the shore base. We'll drop the flyers in Wutai City. If they do not submit to the terms, we'll inform them that Wutai City is well within our range," Rufus ordered without looking back. His dim reflection could be seen on the glass, looking pensive.
Tseng looked down at his phone, tapping at it.
Suddenly, there was an urgent knock at the door of Rufus's office. Rufus strode to his desk and tapped on a button that opened the door, letting a harried, almost panicked-looking Heidegger.
"Sir…Mister President.." he huffed, hands propping him up on his bent knees. The man looked as if he ran here all the way from the undercity with how out of breath he was. Next to Tseng, Rufus frowned.
"What is it? Speak calmly."
Heidegger straightened after a few deep breaths, but the look of panic didn't leave his face.
"We just received word that an attack force left for Fort Tamblin at midnight local time. They were scheduled to arrive already."
"Fort Tamblin?" Rufus's voice became so cold Tseng felt a chill. Having worked closely with Rufus, Tseng had seen when the man was at his most furious. This surpassed even that.
"Yes, they were mounting a surprise attack."
Rufus stepped in front of Heidegger and grabbed the man's decorated lapel in his gloved hand, pulling Heidegger, a man twice his girth, forward. His white trench coat flared behind him. Dark Nation, reflecting its owner's mood, paced agitatedly behind him.
"And why was I not informed?" Heidegger struggled in Rufus's grip.
"I- I don't know. We are investigating now. Soldier isn't used to reporting to the army - b-but it's in operational blackout." Rufus released Heidegger, who stumbled a few steps back before righting himself.
"Find out what the situation is, now," Rufus commanded, cold fury in his voice and steel in his face, "I don't expect to see your face until you have all the answers I need. Understood?"
Heidegger nodded and almost sprinted back out of Rufus's office, ominous silence following in his wake.
"Come on, on your feet," Zack urged. The Soldier groaned in pain but stumbled up, following Zack's instructions to limp out. Next to Zack, Sephiroth looked around, sword out. It was the closest to anxious Zack had ever seen him.
"Something isn't right," Sephiroth said.
"Nothing about any of this is right," Zack responded hotly.
Sephiroth shook his head.
"No," he said, "Don't you sense it?"
As he said it, the rumbling started. It felt like it was shaking Zack to the bones. Around them, loose rock knocked about in the explosion began to clatter ominously against the stone pavement.
"Someone help!" a female voice cried.
Zack heard the cry and went into motion right away. A female ninja was pushing futilely at a fallen slab one courtyard over. Underneath, a man was trapped, slowly crushed by the loose rock.
"Hold on!" Zack said and grabbed onto a chunk of the wall. He poured his strength into the deadlift, and the slab budged slightly. "Slide him out!"
The woman followed Zack's strained command, grabbing hold of one bloodied arm. The brown-haired man slid out, and Zack put the slab down heavily before falling to the ground on his bottom, exhausted.
"Sonon, thank gods!" the woman said, then turned to Zack. "Thank you. You didn't have to-"
She tensed at the sight behind Zack, but when Zack turned around, he sighed in relief. It was just Sephiroth. The General struck an imposing figure, towering above the three.
The woman's hand reached her weapon. Zack tensed, too. It was the man who spoke first.
"Mel-" His eyes were wide as he looked behind Zack, then tilted his head up and up and up. Zack followed his gaze to the red and purple-grey cloud that rose above them in the dawn light.
A horn began to sound and the Wutaians gasped at whatever message was being transmitted. Sephiroth tilted his head and Zack watched realization appear on his face.
Green-slitted eyes met mako-blue. "We need to evacuate. Now."
There were a lot of bad days in this horrid war. Many bad days and a few good ones. Clay experienced most of them. If- When he looked back on it, this day could just be the worst of them.
Clay's helicopter was toward the rear, flying low. It was what saved them in the end.
The beam of light that shot overhead illuminated the sky, flashing brighter than daylight. The resulting shockwave jolted the helicopter violently, but thankfully, the fleet remained airborne. The same could not be said of the vanguard that flew ahead of them in the distance. A few were knocked out of the skies almost instantly and fell into the dark forest below in bright red fireballs.
Fucking hellfires. What is going on?
"Full speed," Clay demanded over his headset.
However, as they approached, it was clear the initial blast wasn't the end. As they drew close, dawn broke over the horizon, casting red and orange on overhead clouds. Amazingly, the clouds parted neatly, leading to Mount Tamblin. It was as if a knife had parted the heavens themselves.
Partway up the mountain, above the fort, engulfed in flame, was a gaping crater. Above that, smoke bellowed from the mountain itself, joining and merging with the smoke from the forest and burning buildings.
Then, things got worse.
With the sound of a great clap, the crater began to collapse in front of Clay's eyes. Its eastern side sloughed off as a single slab. The mud slide carried trees and rock. In moments, a great rumbling sounded.
As if the mud relieved some pressure, the top of the mountain exploded in a cloud of grey ash and red hot rock. A thundering wave of rock began to make its way down the mountain, almost in slow motion. In its path, looking like a children's toy, was what was left of the fort, and below that, countless men still struggling to get to the injured.
As the ash cloud traveled higher, it formed a great mushroom-shaped plume lit in the interior by lighting.
Clay made a grab for his radio, heart pounding and hand so sweaty he almost dropped it.
"Evacuate the men on the ground. Send every bird in the air. Now!"
"Um, sir. It's dangerous to fly. There isn-"
"Send everything. All the helicopters."
The last person Kunsel expected to run into inside this godsforsaken fort was Cloud. He barely recognized the other man, caked as he was in soot with sweat streaking down his face.
"Cloud! What the fuck are you doing here?" Kunsel grabbed onto one of Cloud's pauldrons, trying to push him back out the way he came.
Cloud was supposed to be outside, where it - well, it wasn't safe, but at least it wasn't the death trap the fort was. Cloud dug in with surprising strength. Kunsel's shove only made him sway.
"Where are the others? Zack? Sephiroth?"
"Further in," Kunsel said, voice curt as he tried to get Cloud out.
"We need to find them."
"Cloud?" Sephiroth's voice interrupted them. His eyes were wide, face pale under smears of soot and splattered blood. Kunsel was relieved to see the General, perhaps not unruffled but at least mostly together. Zack followed closely behind. "What are you doing here? It's dangerous."
"It's erupting. We need to get out." Kunsel's own eyes widened, and he looked up. The column of smoke grew larger over them, hovering silently.
Roaring grew closer.
"Too late," Sephiroth said and ran forward, a hand reaching for Cloud. "Take cover!"
It would be too little too late, Kunsel knew, as he dashed toward the closest bit of still-standing wall.
"Shit Cloud!" Zack called. "Sephiroth!"
Kunsel looked back to see Cloud standing still as Sephiroth ran forward to cover him with his own body. Above them, hot ash and rock spewed high into the atmosphere finally acknowledged gravity, and began to crash down.
Kunsel froze.
Soldiers weren't supposed to freeze. Their fight or flight reaction was honed to one setting: fight. But against something of this scope, what would they even fight?
Kunsel's heartbeat pounded in his ear. Badump. Badump. Ba….dump. Things seemed to slow. Sephiroth flew toward Cloud, arms out to grab him. Cloud began to glow gold. His hand was stretched toward the coming wall of destruction as if telling nature itself to stop in its tracks.
Just as Sephiroth reached Cloud, the bright glow became blinding.
"SHIELD!"
The force of the magic buffeted them. Even Sephiroth raised an arm to brace against the pressure as he was pushed back. He didn't go willingly, his boots leaving deep rents in the dirt.
Kunsel watched in amazement as it happened. At first, it seemed to become a wall in front of them, but then it kept growing, rising above the ramparts and the ruined keep. It branched out like a golden net, then a dome as large as the fort itself. Kunsel watched, his mouth open, eyes forgetting even to blink. As the pyroclastic flow grew closer, the forest caught fire. A wall of fire and ash sped toward a thin domed shield that looked like it would shatter at the slightest breeze. Large boulders rained down on them, crashing soundlessly against the shield. The impact left round imprints in a deeper gold, like cracks on a windshield radiating out.
But it held.
Then, grey ash fell. Kunsel could feel the heat. The debri's trajectory through the atmosphere did little to cool things down.
In front of his vision, glowing gold, was Cloud, who was singlehandedly holding up the dome that kept them all alive.
Ash and rock tumbled past them. So many smashed into the golden shield that the cracks on its surface obscured the sky. Though the shield kept them from being crushed, it only attenuated the scorching heat.
Kunsel felt sweat dripping from his brows.
Cloud continued to stand tall. A slight golden figure resolute against the very fury of the Planet. The eye of the storm. Standing next to him, a silent and deadly guardian with silver flowing down his back, was Sephiroth.
I watched a lot of volcano disaster docs to write this chapter. Hopefully it turned out realistic (but still fantastical because it is Final Fantasy)
I'll be back to 2 week update schedule after this chapter. Thanks for reading!