Torus City
Alpha Centauri IV

Centauri defense hadn't responded as quickly to the invasion as they should have, giving the Romulans just over thirty minutes to wreak havoc from orbit. The space station itself had suffered heavy damage before surprising the Romulans, utilizing station defenses to take out a frigate. They apparently hadn't expected the station to be armed. They nevertheless managed to drop three fission missiles from orbit, striking three major Centauri cities.

All of this before system defenses were able to respond, pulling the attention to themselves and off the civilians planetside.

It had been hours since anything was heard of the Romulans. Enough that the Challenger warped out and replaced the local system relay and subspace transceiver, leaving alpha crew on the surface to conduct search and rescue in cities that had suffered fission missile strikes.

Even with the relay in place, still nothing could be detected of the enemy fleet.

On the surface Savok stayed with the medical teams treating the wounded. Rex P'Trell joined the pilots in transporting survivors to nearby cities using vastly large transports only a few were qualified to fly. This left Ash Feral, Lou Chang and Jack Olson to conduct actual search and rescue. Their primary mission, to escort survivors to the staging area before the fires on the north part of the city reached them.

Arriving at their assigned sector, the team could already see an easy dozen or so civilians gathered ahead. They steeled themselves before approaching. They'd been warned that most civilians blamed Starfleet for the disaster.

Two local law enforcement working the scene broke off to approach them.

"Hold on," One said, "It's probably not a good idea to get any closer to this bunch."

Asha ignored that.

"What's the problem?" She asked, "Why aren't these people evacuating?"

"They've got an old man and young girl trapped on the fourth floor. They won't leave without them."

"Let's take a closer look." Asha said.

"Look, we've got this in hand." The second officer said. Asha ignored him as well.

On approach the team could see the old and girl silhouetted in a fourth-floor window, ash and hot air blowing through all around them. At the forefront of the group below six men held tight to a blank while the main group yelled up, encouraging the two to to jump. The older man looked terribly confused.

"That blanket isn't going to do anything from four stories up." Olson said. "We're going to have to come up with something else."

"What about this thing?" Chang said, from the corner of the building.

Stepping over, the other two could see what he was looking at. A zigzagging set of stairs ran up the side of the building, all the way to the top floor.

"That's a fire escape,"Olson said. "That'd be perfect if we could get the ladder down."

"What's holding the ladder up?" Feral asked.

"There's a little latch up there. Do you see it?"

"I see it." She said, "Everyone stand back."

Asha waited until everyone was clear, then took up her phase pistol, set it to kill and took aim at the latch. Firing, it took a moment but her aim was true. The latch *tinged* and flew off, letting the ladder crash down to the alley floor.

"Good shooting, Asha." Chang said. "Now who volunteers to go fetch the Alzheimer's patient."

"We all go." Olson said. "We may have to force the man to come with us."

"Hold on." The first enforcement officer said. "You've done quite enough. We'll take it from here."

"Officer," Asha said. "It's going to be awfully crowded on that stair. And I bet your uniform isn't flame retardant. Ours are."

The LEO looked disgruntled but he gave in.

"Hold on a second. " He said. "I'll get you that blanket. You're gonna need it."

Once the team had the blanket in hand, they climbed the ladder and began ascending the stairs. Luckily none of the windows the fire escape passed had shattered but you could feel the heat through them nonetheless.

Finding the fourth floor window already open, the team ducked in to find the fire hadn't reached the room yet. Still, smoke was beginning to thicken within. At the window the elderly man and the young girl, perhaps five or six in age, still stood. Chang approached the girl right away, getting close enough to reach out a hand.

"Hey, kid." He said."Let me take you out of here."

The girl turned to face him, still holding the elderly man's hand.

"Ayulya mana ep filley op." The girl replied.

"Oh, great." He said. "I should have guessed she wasn't old enough to know English Standard."

Chang fetched his comm and fiddled with it a bit, then tried again.

"We're here to help." He said. "Come with me and I'll get you out of here"

It took a short moment for Chang's comm to translate that to Centuarii Common but once done the girl quickly switched hands from the elderly man to Chang's outreaching hand. He began leading her toward the open window.

The man had hardly missed all the action and he at least spoke English Standard,

"I can't find my wife." He said. "I have to find her before we're all burned up. But I looked everywhere already,"

"She's down in the street." Feral lied. "Come with us and we'll take you to her."

It was the worst possible thing to do to someone in that mental state but the smoke was getting thick and Asha felt desperate.

The man gave no resistance and allowed himself to be escorted to and through the open window. On the outside stairs it became readily apparent that the third story window had burst open, letting flames out onto the fire escape.

Chang simply transferred the girl to the opposite hip and rushed through the flames before they could so much as lick at the girl's toes. The man was going to be a problem though. He couldn't be rushed quite so easily. Here the blanket came in handy. Asha threw it over the man and held him tight while they navigated the turn.

The blanket caught fire but nothing else did, so it had served its purpose admirably. Asha threw it aside.

At the foot of the ladder the throng of people had come to receive the man and the young girl. One of them even thanked them profusely for rescuing what turned out to be her brother. Indeed, there was thanks and well-wishing all around.

It was easy then to forward the group on to the staging area and they departed without further delay. The team, Feral, Chang and Olson, moved onward, eyes and ears open for more survivors to shuffle out of the city.