Fall of the New York Barrier City

The Fall of the New York Barrier City was less a battle and more a tragic example of actions based on incorrect assumption and blind determinism in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.
An event that echoes the fate of previous destroyed Barrier Cities, the antagonistic invading race of ghosts, known as the Phantoms, infiltrate and destroy the New York Barrier City.
According to production staff, there were amazingly no deaths during the Pendulum Escape Pod crash shown on film.
==Prelude==
General Douglas Hein was a staunch supporter of the use of the Zeus Cannon to attack the Phantoms at their source; the Leonid Meteor. His desire to use the weapon was constantly frustrated by the United Nations Security Council whose majority voted not to use the cannon.
Douglas's rival to the council's ear was Dr. Sid, professor and creator of the Bio Etherium division of science, whose successive theories on the planet's Gaia and spirits Hein found ridiculous.
When Sid’s protégé, Aki Ross, revealed that she was carrying a Phantom infection inside of her, Hein began nursing suspicions that the Phantoms were controlling her, and through her, Sid.
Finding probable cause, he dispatched three of Major Elliot's men to accompany Aki Ross to the wastelands, discovering that the infection was having an effect on her and on the Phantoms around her. Based on his suspicions he had Aki, Sid and the Deep Eyes squad that had accompanied her, arrested and placed in a United States Military Force holding cell.
==Battle==
Intending to convince the Council to take military action against the Phantoms, Hein gathered a squad of his most trusted men and, accompanied by Major Elliot, infiltrated and apprehended the city's Barrier control center.
Deactivating a small part of the city's barrier, Hein allowed a number of Phantoms to enter the city; intending to stage a momentary and controllable "break in". The Phantoms began to disperse from the containment area, traveling via the energy pipes that supplied the barrier with energy.
One such Phantom made its way to the barrier control center, killing the operator and causing a feedback that resulted in the center's destruction.
With the control center no longer supplying it with energy, the city's barrier began to disperse, allowing more and more Phantoms; their bodies visible due to the bio-etheric discharge from the barrier, into the city limits. Surprised and woefully unprepared, the citizens, both military and civilian, began falling to the invaders, their souls consumed through mere contact.
As the city's power supply was cut, the laser grid holding Aki, Sid, and the Deep Eyes incarcerated disappeared. Escaping through the city walkways, the group was momentarily split as Phantoms attacked them. With the Deep Eyes finding a Bandit hummvy, they regrouped and made their way to where the Black Boa was being detained in the military hangar.
==Aftermath==
Despite the death of Major Elliot, Douglas Hein escaped, temporarily attempting suicide in guilt over what he had caused. He instead approached the Zeus Cannon, still determined to destroy the Phantoms through it.
Members of the United Nations Security Council had also escaped the city, contacting Hein over the incident and giving him authority to use the cannon unaware that he was the cause for the fall of the New York Barrier.
==Gallery==
TSW Escape concept art.jpg|Concept art.
TSW Another concept art.jpg|Concept art.
TSWScreenshot98.jpg|Screenshot.
TSWScreenshot99.jpg|Screenshot.
Category:Events in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within