AVALANCHE Insurgency

The AVALANCHE insurgency is a war that takes place during Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-, and lasts between εуλ 0001 and εуλ 0008. The war, which ultimately ends with the total defeat of both incarnations of AVALANCHE, sees the use of guerilla warfare and deception on a high level, as well as terrorism, genetically engineered super soldiers and Summon Materia.

Background
With the conclusion of the Wutai War, which results in the complete debellation of Wutai, the last major stronghold against the Shinra Inc. is gone. At this point, an anonymous man who has studied life in Cosmo Canyon establishes an organization which he names AVALANCHE, and under the leadership of Elfé and Fuhito, the movement became a global insurgent group fighting to save the Planet from the misuse of Mako energy. Fuhito was a military genious, and thanks to him, the movement achieved some remarkable successes against a much stronger foe. However, he was also a ruthless and cold leader, willing use any methods deemed necessary to achieve his goals. This would ultimately lead to his own death.

Worldwide guerilla warfare
Mainly thanks to Rufus Shinra, who betrays his father and supplies the insurgents with weapons and intelligence, Fuhito is able to create a monstrous and ruthless attack squad called the Ravens. The squad unsuccessfully tries to bomb the Sector 8 Mako Reactor, and makesde a bold attempt to capture the Sister Ray cannon at Junon and use it to attack Midgar - a mission that was foiled by Sephiroth who also dueled Elfé. They also conducted a number of missions across the globe, in far-off places like Modeoheim and even inside the Shinra Headquarters. Eventually cornered in Wutai, they manage to survive a Shinra onslaught by decieving the enemy to believe that their movement was defunct, something they can only do with the help of Rufus. They later resurge in Corel attempting to destroy the Reactor in the town, but suffer a devastating defeat; The whole town is destroyed by the Shinra army, and Rufus Shinra - AVALANCHE's most important supporter - is captured by the Turks. Barret Wallace, who will later become the founder of the second and far smaller AVALANCHE movement, is involved in the battle on Shinra's side.

Having failed to beat the Shinra conventionally, Fuhito starts to resort to terrorist tactics, causing many members to abandon the movement. In a last ditch effort, Fuhito summons Zirconiade, but ends up being killed in battle on October 5, εуλ 0007. This marks the end of the first AVALANCHE movement and, at least for the moment, all serious opposition to Shinra hegemony in the world.

Sabotage group in Midgar
Although having some fundamental disagreements with Fuhito, to the degree of even collaborating with the Shinra against him at Corel, after studying planet life in Cosmo Canyon, Barret Wallace decided take up the fight where Fuhito left off. Thus, he formed a resistance group on his own in the slums of Sector 7, with the same name and goals as the previous movement, mostly focusing on destroying the Mako Reactors.

On December 9, εуλ 0007, AVALANCHE bombed the Sector 1 Reactor, killing an unknown number of civilians in the process. They launched a similar operation already the next day, with the Sector 5 Reactor as their target, but were taken by surprise by the Shinra Intelligence Agency and thus had to fight the Air Buster. The brief fight resulted in an unwelcome split-up of the group, as Cloud Strife fell down into the Midgar Slums. While AVALANCHE tried to reunify and gather intelligence info, they eventually discovered that Shinra planned to drop the plate above Sector 7 in order to wipe out the group. AVALANCHE failed to prevent this and everybody in Sector 7 died, including three members of the group. This marked the practical defeat of the second AVALANCHE movement, although the remaining members would still put up a fight in order to save Aerith Gainsborough, who is kidnapped by the Turks right before the desctruction of Sector 7. When Sephiroth reemerged a short while later, the surviving members choose to chase after him rather than continue fighting for a lost cause in Midgar. Although they are followed by the Turks virtually wherever they go for the rest of the game, the group never call themselves AVALANCHE following the events in Midgar, and in Cosmo Canyon, Barret Wallace admits AVALANCHE is no more,

Aftermath
The surviving members of AVALANCHE keep working against the Shinra throughout the rest of Final Fantasy VII, although their main focus is to stop Sephiroth. It was Cloud's party that finished off the Shinra leadership by killing Scarlet and Heidegger in the aftermath of the Raid on Midgar. They also financed some resistance fighters during the Siege of Fort Condor, helping them to fend off the far more powerful Shinra army and preventing them from capturing the fort.