Sister Ray



The Sister Ray in Final Fantasy VII was a huge weapon built by the Shin-Ra Electric Power Company.

Junon
The Sister Ray was originally installed in Junon, some time before the start of Final Fantasy VII. In Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-, it appears in a flashback as a virtual battle ground between Sephiroth, and Genesis Rhapsodos. The battle is intense enough that most of the cannon is sliced off into the sea. This is just a simulation, so no actual damage is done to the Sister Ray.

In Final Fantasy VII it can be seen as the party first travels through the city. It was a canon of such great power that Shin-Ra had no need to fire it until after the emergence of Weapon after Sephiroth summons Meteor. When Tifa and Barret are kidnapped by Shin-Ra to be used as a scapegoat for the crisis the Planet was embroiled in. Tifa was thrown into a gas chamber to be executed. However, these plans are ruined when the Sapphire Weapon charges at Junon from the sea. The first ever firing of the canon misses its target, and the Weapon's counter-attack blasts a hole in the fortress' armor. The Weapon charges a second blast, but the second firing of the Sister Ray at point-blank range destroys it. Tifa escapes her gas chamber execution cell through the hole Weapon blasted and runs onto the barrel of the cannon. And after a cat-fight with the Shin-Ra executive Scarlet, Tifa escapes on the Highwind.

Midgar
After the near-disaster at Junon, the Sister Ray is moved to the capital city of Midgar. At Midgar its power is boosted by the combined charging power of the city's entire electrical power grid; all eight Mako Reactors working at unison to create the most powerful weapon the world had ever seen. It could also be moved around the Shin-Ra Building so that it could fire at 360° around the entire city. This could therefore explain that the Sister Ray was aiming at Diamond WEAPON, and that if the party travels from where the cannon is pointing, they will miss the Northern Crater by several degrees. Specially designed to destroy the force field around Sephiroth's base at the Northern Crater, President Rufus Shinra put the hopes of the survival of the Planet - and his company on the Sister Ray. However it would only be fired once more.

A second WEAPON appears out of the world's oceans, this time the Diamond WEAPON comes out of the seas below the Forgotten Capital. Despite the attempts of the party to defeat it, the WEAPON continues its advance towards Midgar. Finally the Sister Ray is fired, destroying both the WEAPON and Sephiroth's shield in a single blast.

But the WEAPON fires out its own attack before being destroyed. The top floors of the Shin-Ra Tower are shattered, seemingly killing Rufus in the attack. Afterwards, Midgar descends into chaos, all order lost as various factions fight desperately for control. Professor Hojo comes out of the shadows and takes position at the controls of the Sister Ray. His plan was to fire the cannon one last time to give his son, Sephiroth, more power. This would overpower the systems and almost certainly destory the cannon, possibly even Midgar itself, and he was warned not to. However, this plan was foiled when Hojo is killed by the party.

Destruction


The Sister Ray is destroyed along with most of the Midgar in the cataclysm of Meteor falling on the city. In an instant the massive and the proud weapon is mangeled into a barely standing ruin. Just before the destruction, Vincent Valentine spots Hojo once again at the controls of the cannon. Though he thinks it to be just an illusion, this foreshadows the events of Dirge of Cerberus. The ruins of the Sister Ray can be seen in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.

Base

 * 1x Grosspanzer (Mobile), 2x Grosspanzer (Small), 1x Grosspanzer (Big)

Upper Gantries

 * 2x SOLDIER: 1st
 * 1x XCannon
 * 3x SOLDIER: 1st
 * 1x Maximum Kimaira
 * 1x SOLDIER: 1st

Trivia

 * The cannon may have been named after a song by the Velvet Underground, which is featured on their "White Light/White Heat" album.
 * The Sister Ray may be the most powerful weapon ever built by man in the entire series of Final Fantasy. The only other weapon that even comes close to its destruction potential is the main cannon of the Sky Fortress Bahamut from Final Fantasy XII.
 * Scarlet tells Rufus that the "Mako cannon" has been renamed "Sister Ray" after being moved to Midgar from Junon. However, while running down the cannon's barrel at Junon, the name "Sister Ray" has already been imprinted on it.