The official commendations arrived exactly as the rising sun hit the stone of the Wall. It was inevitable.
Ren received the formal dispatch in front of the entire sector. High Command had issued a sweeping, open merit, explicitly recognizing him for the annihilation of the high-tier mutant strike force that had crashed against the Southwest perimeter.
Liora was recognized as well, though her commendation carried a slightly quieter tone. She was officially decorated for stalling the Platinum horror and containing the breach until Ren could arrive. It was a classic reality of military history: the world always possessed a much longer memory for the man who delivered the killing blow than for the soldier who held the shield.
Anyone with two functioning eyes who had stood on that Wall knew the truth, if Liora hadn't fearlessly plunged into the meat grinder the exact second Ren called her, the sector would have been a slaughterhouse before he ever returned.
