The Tide Turns

Jakarta Bay stretched out like a wounded giant beneath a shroud of dark, oppressive clouds. The vast expanse of water, once shimmering and pure, was now tainted, choked by the sprawling reclamation project spearheaded by the Nine Dragons syndicate. Tower cranes stood like silent sentinels in the distance, their skeletal arms looming over the artificial islands being carved out of the sea. Steel and concrete rose aggressively, cutting jagged lines into the horizon, a brutal reminder of greed strangling the land. The lush mangroves, coral reefs, and wetlands that once thrived here were suffocating beneath layers of dirt and debris, their fragile ecosystems slowly erased in the name of progress.