March 15, 2022

Truck 201, Ambulance 201, and Car 5 were off at an apartment building to assist police with a welfare check. They were requested to assist them with forcing the door open.

Weiss had three firefighters from Truck 201 come up to the apartment door with her and force it open. The three firefighters sent up were Whitley, Penny, and a younger firefighter about 17 who had joined in December and was just about to wrap up his BFCFR class, and everyone else stood by outside.

As the three made it to the door, Penny said to Weiss, "Captain, any word on the full situation?"

"The cops told us that they received a call about 20 minutes ago from the renter's son," the white-haired girl told her. She was wearing her normal clothes and a radio strap, in contrast to the full turnout gear of the three other firefighters. "They haven't had any contact in a week."

"Got it," Penny replied. She then turned to the newer firefighter and said, "Give me that halligan bar." After she grabbed it from him, Whitley approached her from behind with an axe. "Alright, Whitley, you know the drill. Hit it."

Whitley then drove the axe head into the adse end, pushing the fork end into the door jamb.

"Hit it! Hit it! Hit it!" Each time, Whitley drove the axe head in. "Now, drive it!" Whitley then drove it in continuously about 5 times before Penny shouted, "Stop!"

Whitley then said, "That looks about good."

"Yep," Penny replied before she pushed on the halligan bar and destroyed the lock, opening the door. As it swung open, the four firefighters, accompanied by two police officers, entered the apartment.

Weiss looked into the living room and found that the TV was still on. She also noticed an odd odor coming from another room. "Hey, guys, I smell something funny from this room over here." As she pointed to the room, she approached the door as an officer walked over to her. She opened the door and screamed, "Holy FUCK!"

In the bed of the room laid a deceased man, who had been dead for at least several days, lying in bed, as if he was still asleep. As Weiss ran in to check on the man, she noticed that rigor mortis was already beginning to set in, and the smell got more pungent. The officer with her said, "Yep, he's dead."

"No shit," Weiss replied. She then radioed, "Car 5 to Ambulance 201, you can return to quarters, no need for medical transport."

"Ambulance 201, 10-4," replied a paid firefighter-paramedic over the radio.

Weiss then changed channels and radioed, "Car 5 to Fire Alarm."

"Car 5," replied back Blake.

"Subject is going to be a 10-45 Code 1," Weiss began. "Ambulance 201 is 10-8. PD will be advising dispatch on their end to get a coroner up here. I will advise you when myself and Truck 201 are 10-8."

"10-4," Blake radioed back.

As the younger firefighter walked in, Weiss immediately told him, "Jay, I don't think you wanna see this."

"What is it?" The younger firefighter curiously looked over and then recoiled back when he saw what it was. "That's a fucking body?!"

"Yeah," she replied. "Well, that explains why they weren't able to make contact for a week. He's probably been dead for about that long. It's as if he fell asleep one day and never woke up."

A cop told her, "You guys are probably all set here."

"I would say so," the heiress replied. "Not much we can do if the guy's dead." Then, she felt her phone vibrate and answered it. "Hello?" She then switched to Atlesian. "Was? Was meinen Sie? Das Herrenhaus brannte? Okay, beruhige dich, beruhige dich! Ich werde so schnell wie möglich dort sein. Auf Wiedersehen!" She then sighed. "Fucking hell."

Whitley then approached his sister and asked her, "What happened at the mansion?"

"I guess it caught fire," she replied. "We gotta go up there sooner rather than later." She then thought to herself, "Was this what the caller meant by the Ides of March?"

At the Royal Palace, Ruby was outside with Delwyn as they both overlooked a fountain that had just been turned back on for the Spring season. "I always enjoyed this fountain in particular," Delwyn told his wife. "In fact, my original plan was to propose to you here."

"It was?" Ruby smiled. "It would have been the perfect backdrop. Alas, I guess God had other plans." She then sighed and looked down at herself. "I still can't believe it's been over 7 months since the attacks. It still feels like yesterday."

Delwyn hugged her and kissed her on the forehead. "I know, Ruby. It still feels that way to me."

The couple was interrupted by the sounds of shouting and a loud crash near the front entrance gate. As they looked over, they saw several guards rush towards the gate with their guns drawn as they heard popping sounds go off. A guard yelled over to them, "Your Majesty, get inside! There's been an incident!"

Ruby turned to Delwyn and nodded. "I'm not missing this!" As she drew her own pistol, she ran towards the front gate as opposed to running away. Delwyn heeded the guard's advice and ran into the front palace. As Ruby ran to the scene, she said to another guard, "What happened?!"

"Some guy rammed a truck into the front gate and then opened fire on the tourists there!" He then realized who he was talking to and slightly panicked. "Wait, Your Majesty, are you protected?!"

"Yeah!" Ruby lifted her black sweatshirt and red undershirt up to reveal a bulletproof vest. "I got you covered!" The two then made it to the area of the front gate. It was a chaotic scene, with the body of the driver on the ground as well as the bodies of two guards and three tourists. The bullet-riddled truck was on fire after being struck so many times, and a guard was trying to put it out with a fire extinguisher. Ruby ran up to the body of the driver and kicked the assault rifle out of his hands. "The weapon is out of his hands!"

"There's no other suspects," another guard noted. "The driver is down."

Ruby immediately holstered her pistol and ran over to a fourth tourist, who was barely alive. She looked her over and saw several bullet wounds in her abdomen. The queen shouted out, "I NEED A TRAUMA KIT HERE NOW!" She immediately took her undershirt off from under her sweatshirt and tore it into several pieces to use as a makeshift set of bandages. As she applied pressure to the bleeding wounds, a guard ran up to her with a trauma kit. "Thank you!"

The large crowd that was watching from across the wide avenue around the palace was stunned at the attack. They were composed mostly of tourists, who were shocked that a terrorist could come so close to striking the palace itself. The sight of a royal family member immediately jumping into danger to try to save someone else's life was also a surprise, except to Valeanians, who had already grown used to Ruby being a huntress and a firefighter by then and admired her for it. As firefighters and police officers descended on the scene, many had already begun to record the horrid proceedings on their phones.

"That's what the caller meant," Weiss said to Ruby over the phone several hours after the attempted attack. By then, Weiss had already handed a recording of the original phone call to the VCPD and filed a police report an hour earlier. "My guess is that this attack and the fire at the mansion in Atlas are connected."

"Most likely," Ruby replied as she sat in an empty meeting room. "Obviously, don't go around saying any of this to anyone until RVISS confirms it and we release it publicly."

"Of course," Weiss replied to her. "Are you still up for the AF-P class tomorrow and on Saturday?"

Ruby chuckled. "I'm not gonna let the White Fang deter my fire training, even with the hell I went through for like two hours after the attack with all the debriefings and checkups. It was fucking tedious. So, when are you leaving for Atlas?"

"Tomorrow," she replied. "I'll be back probably on the 18th or 19th. I gotta meet with some SDC execs in regards to the fire."

March 16, 2022

"Vale City Fire Department," said Blake to a caller at the Fire Alarm Office. "Dispatcher 875."

"There's a repair garage on fire on the corner of 17th Street and Larper Avenue!" The caller was a mildly panicked man. Blake checked the CAD screen that had popped up for the call and saw that the 911 operator who had first answered the call had already entered an address in.

"Okay, just to confirm from the 911 police operator, your phone number is 201-235-2927, correct?"

"Yes!"

"Do you see flames or just smoke?"

"I see flames coming from the inside of the front windows!" Blake immediately began typing in response.

"Do you believe anyone is inside?"

"No, it's closed today, thank God."

"And you are not inside the building?"

"No." By now, Blake could hear the dispatchers in the paging consoles sending out the tones of the closest fire companies.

"Okay, sir, my partner is sending firefighters to help you, so stay on the line until I tell you to disconnect so I can give you some instructions. Don't try to put the fire out, do not enter or reenter the building, and do not carry anything out of the building that is on fire. I also want you to have you or someone else direct firefighters to the scene. If anything changes before help arrives, give us a call back at either 911 or 725-3432. Can I just get your name before I go?"

"Roger Maywood! I can hear the fire whistles going off!" The caller referred to the sirens on the volunteer firehouses, which went off for any fire (non-EMS) call.

"Okay, that means help's on the way, Roger. Thank you." Blake then hung up and looked over at her partner. "Info in CAD good?"

"Yep," her partner replied. "All checks out. Looks like they just linked another call to our's." She then pointed to a line in the notes saying "CALL 22-3-2022-F/DIR-117 IS DUPLICATE OF CALL 22-3-2022-F/911-351, IS 2ND CALL FOR INCIDENT 22-3-2022-FIRE/AMBO-801." As they looked, a third call got linked. "CALL 22-3-2022-P/DIR-124 IS DUPLICATE OF CALL 22-3-2022-F/911-351, IS 3RD CALL FOR INCIDENT 22-3-2022-FIRE/AMBO-801."

Blake typed up an intranet message to the paging console reading, "Three calls so far for Delta Box Alarm at Box 238/274 17th Street." She then said to her partner, "Fuck, that's in Vigilant's second-due. I'm gonna miss this one."

At the fire scene, Truck 201 and Engine 202 pulled up at the same time. Goodwill Engine 202's crew got off the truck fully masked-up, while Vigilant Truck 201's crew did not as they weren't first-due. Penny and Ren stepped off and immediately grabbed a rotary saw from a back compartment to cut a hole in the metal garage doors. As Ren pulled the rip cord, Penny pointed out where they would cut. "Make a nice person-shaped hole right there, and they'll be able to knock it down pretty fast!" A paid firefighter-paramedic joined them with a pike pole.

As they approached the door, Ren revved up the saw before he dug the blade into the metal roll-up door, causing sparks to fly as Penny backed him up. The paid firefighter put his pike pole down to turn Penny and Ren's SCBAs on, for which Ren said as he continued to saw away, "Thanks!" Meanwhile, five firefighters from Goodwill were making their way into the repair shop through the front door with two 1.5-inch hand lines, while two Vigilant firefighters got masked up outside and prepared to take a 2.5-inch hand line pulled from Truck 201 through the opening Penny, Ren, and the paid firefighter made. As the first hole was made, dark gray smoke began pouring out of it, but Ren ignored it and kept sawing until the hole was big enough for people to fit through.

"I'll take the rest out," said the paid firefighter as he used his pike pole to punch out the rest of the metal. Once he was done, the two Vigilant firefighters made their way in with the 2.5-inch line while Penny helped feed it to them.

The paid Assistant District Chief then walked up to Penny, Ren, and the paid firefighter and said to them, "Go up on the roof and cut me a hole right above the garage!"

"You got it," Ren replied as he saw that two other firefighters had already thrown up a ladder to the roof, and two more were throwing up a second. The paid firefighter said, "I'll take the rotary saw back and grab the chainsaw." He then put his pike pole down and grabbed the rotary saw from Ren.

Penny looked up and asked Ren, "Think we need masks before we go up there?"

"Not yet," he replied as he shook his head. "I'll let you know when we have to stop and mask up."

Penny grabbed the pike pole while Ren went back to the truck to grab an axe. Then, they both went up the ladder first, with the paid firefighter behind them as Ren sounded the flat roof with his axe to make sure it was not weak or spongy. As the three walked on, both Penny and Ren continued to sound it until they all got to the spot they needed to be at. "Right here," the paid firefighter said. "I'll start sawing up the roof at this spot. Polendina, start making a secondary hole with the axe."

"On it," Penny replied before she began hacking away at the roof with her axe as the paid firefighter sawed away. Once the first hole was done and sawed away, Ren used the pike pole to punch the hole out and let smoke out.

Ren told Penny, "Now would be about the time to pause and mask up." The paid firefighter nodded before all three put their tools down and took their helmets off to put their masks on. Once they were all set and fully geared up again, Penny continued with her cut, continuing to hack away. Once she was done, Ren punched out the cut with the pike pole. "Okay, let's get the hell off the roof!"

As the three walked to the ladder, they sounded the roof again to make sure it didn't weaken while they made their cuts. Then, they made their way down the ladder. As they did, both of the holes they made flashed over with fire, startling Penny. "Shit! The holes flashed!"

Meanwhile, in Atlas, Weiss had just finished a board meeting at the SDC's Atlas Headquarters. On the phone with Jaune, she vented to him about her frustrations. "The execs at the table don't look to me in confidence, even though we've been booming in business."

"They think you're too young," Jaune inferred, based on info she had told her. "Didn't you say they tried to convince your dad to not make you heiress?"

"They did, and they failed miserably," she replied. "You're probably right about the age thing. Even though under my leadership, we've experienced more business than ever, they still don't have faith in me. On top of that, with my increases in worker pay, we've been greatly rehabbing our image. What is it that I'm doing wrong?"

"Maybe it's because of your efforts to improve the image," Jaune replied. "My feeling is that since you keep trying to spend money to improve working conditions and pay at the expense of their high salaries, they're getting pissed off."

Weiss sighed as the realization hit her. "You're definitely right. All they care about is their bottom line. Truth be told, I know what all their lifestyles are, and even if I cut all their pay in half, they'd barely have to change anything. Most of them are just greedy fucks. Then again, am I really the right person to call this out, given my own wealth and position?"

"You are the CEO," Jaune pointed out. "It's your company."