33 minutes in.
"Good afternoon, my fellow Valeanians," said Delwyn as he addressed the nation from the Royal Palace. "Today, we've had a national tragedy. Three airplanes have crashed into the Union Square Centre in an apparent terrorist attack on our kingdom. I have spoken with the Mayor of Vale City, the Earl of Vale Manor, and my Royal Cabinet, and I have ordered that the full resources of the royal government go to help the victims and their families. Additionally, I have also tasked them with finding out who committed this cowardly attack on our kingdom. Terrorism anywhere in Remnant will not be tolerated, regardless of whom the perpetrator is, especially when it goes after innocent civilians."
Suddenly, a guard interrupted him with important news. The guard walked up to him and whispered into his ear, "A fourth plane just struck the Apamea Central Bank building 3 minutes ago." Delwyn's eyes widened with shock.
"I see," Delwyn said before turning back to the camera. "It has come to my attention that a fourth plane has struck the Apamea Central Bank building. This... This is shocking news to all of us... Vale is truly under attack. I will immediately direct the resources of the royal government to also assist the city of Apamea due to this shocking revelation. As I have stated before, terrorist attacks will not be tolerated. Thank you, and God bless Vale." He then ended his speech and walked off the podium to go back to the situation room to receive a briefing on the Apamea attack.
The Apamea Central Bank was the second largest bank in Vale, and the 5th largest in Remnant. Its headquarters had been built in its home city of Apamea, the second largest city in Vale and one of only 7 cities in Vale to have a fully-paid fire department, in 1944. It was 30 stories tall and 355 feet high. The plane had nose-dived from the sky and slammed into the right side of the building. It exploded in a fireball, which caused the building to partially collapse inward, destroying most of the building's right side. As in Vale, the Apamea Fire Department immediately responded to the scene, most having already watched the beginning of the attacks in Vale.
36 minutes in.
Ambulance 201 arrived at the USC, pulling up at the staging area just a block away. At the same time they did, a 10th alarm was struck. By now, 86 companies and paid stations, 20 fire patrol stations, 5 district chiefs, and 5 assistant district chiefs had been dispatched to the scene. Additionally, all administrative chiefs were either en route or were on scene. Additionally, firefighters were just beginning to do an attack on the massive fires in Building 1 above its impact zone.
A fire police officer (a member of a volunteer fire company who handles traffic control, usually a much older member) said to Hermann, sitting in the officer's seat, "Ambulance 201, correct?"
"Affirmative, sir."
"You're doing lobby control in Building 1," the fire police officer replied as he checked off Ambulance 201 on a clipboard.
All 10 people aboard the ambulance then got out. Ruby and Yang pulled the stretcher out and brought it with them, carrying EMS equipment in several jump bags on it.
Eventually, they reached the lobby of Building 1. As they did, a firefighter from another company came along, carrying a badly-burned young woman in his arms. She had apparently been found trying to walk down from the impact zone and had been carried down by several firefighters in one of the elevators. She had burns all along the right side of her body. He frantically said, "We need her to get into your stretcher now!"
Ruby said, "Got it." She and Yang immediately took the EMS bags off as the other firefighter laid the woman down on the stretcher. Ruby then yelled out, "We need an AFP over here! We got a burn patient!"
A paid firefighter-paramedic immediately rushed over with an ALS bag. He said, "Me and the other guy will take care of this. What company are you from?"
"Vigilant," Yang replied. "We're from Ambulance 201."
Hermann immediately spotted them and ran over, saying, "I'll get a guy from the truck to drive the ambulance down." He then saw the woman's burns and said to himself, "Oh my God..." He then radioed over District 2's Operations Channel 1, "Ambulance 201 Officer to Truck 201, upon your arrival, send a driver to Ambulance 201. We need to do a transport for a burn patient."
"10-4," replied Winter, the officer on the truck. "We'll send Lieutenant Key to drive it."
50 minutes in. By now, the 11th and 12th alarms had been called, bringing the number of companies and stations dispatched to 92, the number of fire patrol stations dispatched to 24, the number of district chiefs dispatched to 7, and the number of assistant district chiefs dispatched to 7. Additionally, 7 minutes before, reports had come in that a 5th plane had struck the dorms of Haven Academy in Mistral. As a result, around the 50-minute-mark, Delwyn ordered all plane traffic, with the exception of the military, the government, public safety, and the news media to be grounded across all of Vale He also immediately phoned Mistral's king and vowed to extend support to them.
George and Yang had just met up a few minutes earlier. Now, they were manning the elevators together, sending firefighters up and down. Right after sending a crew of 5 firefighters and a stretcher up, George said to Yang, standing next to him, "Today's been a crazy day, huh?"
"You can say that again," replied Yang just as an elevator came down. The doors immediately opened with 3 firefighters pulling 2 stretchers, both carrying severely injured office workers. George and Yang both looked away, not wanting to lose their lunches. "Ugh... That's awful..."
Then, they noticed several people outside were pointing up at the sky in horror. George said, "What are they doing out there?" Suddenly, they both found out why, much to their horror.
A body fell to the ground, hitting it with a thud and barely missing 2 police officers standing outside, horrifying everyone who had just witnessed it. Penny, who was standing just outside the doors, which had been splattered with the man's blood, screamed in horror. He had managed to jump out far enough to hit the ground rather than one of the decks of the building.
Yang said, "Holy shit... People are already jumping..." She had an expression of terror on her face. "It must be hell up there..."
Ruby, walking over to them, said to Yang and George in shock, "Did you see that?! Did you fucking see that?! Please tell me that was just my imagination!"
"It wasn't," George replied, telling the brutal truth. "That really happened..."
"Ruby," Winter said as she also walked over with Weiss and Eva Tietz. "Me, Weiss, and Lieutenant Tietz are heading up to the impact zone. Wanna come with us?" She carried a spare air pack for Ruby to use. "Captain Kirkridge and a few other guys are already going up there with spare bottles for us and to assist with the 99th floor staging area."
Ruby sighed and said, "It beats being down here and watching people kill themselves by jumping." She then grabbed the pack and put it on, pulling the straps tight. She then turned to Yang and said, "I'll be back." The 4 of them then boarded an open elevator with a paid deputy chief and a volunteer fire captain who had already boarded. Yang then pressed the firefighter operations button that closed the doors and sent them up.
George said, "She'll be fine."
"I hope so," Yang replied, still worried.
60 minutes in.
Ruby, Weiss, Winter, and Eva had just arrived on the 99th floor. On the eastern end was a crowded triage area, while on the western end was a staging area packed with firefighters, in addition to the 12 rapid intervention teams that had been set up.
Hermann beckoned them over to staging, saying, "Over here! We got an assignment for you from Captain Kirkridge!"
Winter said to her father, "I brought Weiss, Ruby, and Eva with me."
"Good," Hermann replied. "We need you four to relieve a crew on the 105th floor that was doing an attack on the fire." He then showed them a clipboard map that showed how they would get there. "Follow the path on this map to the hand line. Stay safe, and good luck."
Winter replied, "Got it." She then turned to the gang. "We're going to the 105th floor." She then led them to the stairs, located towards the center of the 99th floor.
As they climbed the stairs to get to the 105th floor, they passed by numerous shoes and high heels that had been left behind by workers that were fleeing the attack. The stairwell they were in was the only stairwell that had not been severed by the impact of the crash in Building 1.
When they reached the 102nd floor, Winter stopped them and said, "Go on air now." Ruby nodded and took her helmet and gloves off to put her mask on. She then put her helmet and gloves back on before continuing up the stairs. As they passed by the doors to the 102nd, 103rd, and 104th floors, they felt the heat and smoke drastically increase, and they also noticed the many lengths of hose that were connected to standpipes in the stairwell.
Once they eventually got to the 105th floor, they found its doors to be open. 2 hand lines were stretched into it as well. Eva said, "Which one is it?"
Then, a group of firefighters exited the floor and into the stairwell. Their leader, a captain, said to Winter, "It's that one." He pointed to a hand line that extended to the right. "Follow that one."
"Got it," Winter replied. She then motioned her hand to call up the gang to follow her. They then entered the office space of the 107th floor.
As they made their way to the end of the hand line, they could barely see due to the thick smoke. They could see some small debris, most likely from the plane, that was scattered all over the floor. Ruby also noticed the outline of a body in an empty office they passed by it. She thought to herself, "They're probably not from the plane."
Eventually, the smoke got so bad they had to crawl on their knees for a short distance until they finally reached the end of the 2 1/2-inch hand line. Winter said, "Ruby, go get the front end. The rest of us will be behind you."
Ruby gave her a thumbs up and moved her way to the front. Once she did, she opened up the bale of the nozzle and fired water onto the ceiling to cool it down before they made their way any further. Then, they advanced.
It did not take long for them to encounter fire. As soon as they found a roaring fire towards the northern end of the 105th floor's office space, Ruby opened up on it, darkening it down and producing even more blinding smoke. By now, she was unable to see even her hands as they operated the nozzle. Even so, they pushed forwards even more, attacking the fire further.
Then, they suddenly reached the edge of the building as they began to see light. Ruby said, "Holy shit, did we just reach the hole in the building, Captain Schnee?"
"I think we did," Winter replied. "Weiss, do you see this?"
"Yeah, I do." Weiss was amazed they had made it that far. "We still got 12 minutes of air left."
"That's more than enough to get back out," Winter replied as she stood up. "Follow me."
The 4 of them then made their way to the edge of the building, where the smoke was channeling out. On the way, they had seen larger pieces of plane debris scattered on the floor. As they looked out of the hole made by the plane, Ruby said, "Holy shit..."
"Alright, let's turn back," Winter said. They all then turned around and began making their way back to the stairwell, having attacked the fire. As they went along their way, they moved faster than before so they could have enough air for the way down.
Eventually, they made their way to the stairwell with 3 minutes of air to spare. Eva said, "We should really get going."
"Yeah," Winter replied. They all then began running down the stairs as their air time ticked away. "I'm amazed we didn't suck down more air up there."
Ruby asked Winter, "You got a relief crew coming, right?"
"Yeah," Winter replied. "We're all set."
Eventually, when they got to the 103rd floor, Winter momotioned for them to stop. She then began taking her mask off. Ruby, Weiss, and Eva followed. Once that was done, they continued on their way. Ruby and Weiss coughed a few times due to the smoke from above. "We are totally drained of air," Weiss said to Ruby. "I bet my sister will make us go back down and bring our bottles to the refilling station they have set up on the ground."
By now, it had been 89 minutes. 72 minutes in, Commissioner Amaranth decided to order a general alarm to be struck. Fire Alarm immediately transmitted the all-call pager tones and the all-call siren tones, calling every volunteer fire company and paid fire station to the scene. Additionally, thousands of soldiers descended upon Vale to both protect it from any Grimm attacks along the new city walls and to help cover the fire department with military firefighters. So far, there had only been a small uptick in Grimm activity, a miracle credited to the clearance and redevelopment of the old exclusion zone around Vale City that had originally made up the rest of Vale County. This was in sharp contrast to the Battle of Beacon 6 years earlier, where the Grimm in the Exclusion Zone managed to breach the old city walls due to sheer numbers.
August 23 was already a bad day for Remnant. However, one should always be prepared for an already bad event event to get worse.