Everything has changed, and Caireann Station still smells like smoke.

It’s a reminder of what happened here – and how our survival wasn’t thanks to the alliances, ingenuity or diplomacy,  but a quirk of the universe that ruptured the apertures and forced the Vaadwaur to retreat.

The dead are still being counted. Bodies still pulled from ruined corridors, new names added to the list of those we mourn.

One of them is Gant. Murdered in our custody. I know that he wasn’t innocent, nor will I pretend that he was. But his defiance of the Vaadwaur Supremacy gave us the hope we so desperately needed – and the intel he provided gave us the strength to ultimately stand our ground.

We don’t know who killed him. With the number of casualties, and the coming and going since the battle is over, we will likely never find out.

Whoever it was – they are being hailed as a hero by more people than I can count.
And sometimes I wonder … if the battle hadn’t gone in our favour, would I agree?

Was this justice?

Everything has changed, and today, I find myself unable to remember what the ‘before’ looked like. What it was like to wander these halls and only think of all we hoped to accomplish. What it was like to pass those who are now only shadows in our memory.

We will never forget their names. We will never forget their sacrifice.

We’re not whole. But we survived.

— from Aldris Ceix personal log